As we've told the Heartland Institute directly through Twitter, their response[4] to our new report on climate change denial, Dealing in Doubt[5], contains a series of lies that are tellingly consistent with the lies we document in the report itself. Here are some, but not all, of the silliest claims Heartland made in their response to us:

Lie #1:

“Fact: Most scientists don’t believe the effect of human activities on climate is sufficiently well understood to make predictions about future climate conditions, and many believe the modest warming that may occur would be beneficial.”

This is a sad, sad attempt to continue what Heartland does best on climate change: say anything but the truth[6]. Without valid refutation, Heartland fully dismissed our citations of two separate peer-reviewed studies (from PNAS, 2010[7] and Environmental Research Letters, 2013[8]) showing 97%-98% consensus among active climate scientistsabout the existence and cause of global warming. Nor did Heartland acknowledge the review of thousands of peer-reviewed papers on climate change, concluding that only 24 of 13,950 rejected global warming[9].

Here's the really sad part: Heartland cites a 2009 survey[10] by Peter T. Doran and Maggie Kendall Zimmerman that supposedly shows “most scientists do not side with Greenpeace on the issue.”

Except that's not what the study concludes at all. Rather, Doran and Zimmerman found a 96-97% consensus among specialized scientists that took part in the survey who agree that the earth's temperature is rising and humans are the cause. The end of the paper specifically points out the greater understanding of climate change by scientists who took part in the survey and those without scientific expertise:

“It seems that the debate on the authenticity of global warming and the role played by human activity is largely nonexistent among those who understand the nuances and scientific basis of long-term climate processes.”

Heartland's other citations aren't any better. One is Heartland president Joseph Bast[11]'s “reasonable interpretation” of conclusions he'll never accept, and the rest comes from a retired TV weatherman named Anthony Watts[12](who's not a climate scientist), who runs the climate denier blog WattsUpWithThat[13]. Watts was on Heartland's payroll last year for a $44,000 project[14] to undermine climate change evidence gathered from weather stations, funded by Heartland's billionaire “anonymous donor,” Barre Seid[15]. But this is what we expect–Heartland has always demanded legitimacy despite its inherent lack thereof.

Lie #2:

“[The Heartland Institute] has never demonized scientists who disagree with its positions, never broken the law, and never lied about any aspect of global warming … or any other issue for that matter.”

…which was dropped from ExxonMobil's roster[21], as Heartland acknowledges[22], for being too out-of-touch with the scientific reality of climate change–that's according to ExxonMobil!

Note also Heartland's frequent demonization of climate scientists (see bombastic slander of Michael Mann here[23], here[24], here[25] and here[26], to start). Not to mention Heartland's PR[27] and fundraising campaign to put scientist Peter Gleick in jail after its staff were foolish enough to email their internal documents[28] to him, revealing all of their corporate and personal funders, including Chicago billionaire Barre Seid's multi-million dollar support[29] for for Heartland's denial of global warming.

Lie #3:

“Heartland has produced more educational material on climate change than all but a handful of organizations in the world.”

“Greenpeace used the stolen documents [the leaked documents[28] referenced above] to target scientists who worked with Heartland, contacting the deans of universities and asking that those scientists be fired or investigated.”

Greenpeace never called for anyone to be fired, but we did certainly support the investigations of professors on Heartland's climate denial payroll in response to Greenpeace's inquiries. Mainly, Arizona State University's Robert C. Balling[33] (a recipient of grants from ExxonMobil for his work to discredit climate science) and the University of Missouri's Anthony Lupo, whose inconsistent statements[34] denying the scope of climate change are well documented. The full text of our letters to universities can be found on our page investigating the Heartland Institute leaked documents.[35]

Lie #5:

“Fact: NIPCC is a genuinely objective, independent, and respected voice in the climate change debate. The IPCC is none of the above.”

This was an interesting assertion, our report demonstrates how the Heartland's undistinguished NIPCC[36] is very different from real Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change–mainly that Heartland's authors are paid, unlike the IPCC scientists, and Heartland only critiques writing from climate deniers while IPCC critiques all papers submitted for consideration (see Skeptical Science[37]).

We'll leave it at that–while we want to correct Heartland's errors, we recognize that they exist to waste people's time, run interference on honest dialog and thrive off of the attention they get by projecting their own very actions onto others (mainly: lying, manipulating reporters, lawmakers and the public, and shilling for vested interests in matters that affect the public).

We cannot possibly correct all of Heartland's historic and ongoing lies: that's what its staff are paid to do and forbidden to acknowledge.